Mount Holly hires another attorney to assist with U.S. Supreme Court case

Rose Krebs @rosekrebs

Friday

Jul 26, 2013 at 12:01 AMJul 26, 2013 at 5:30 AM

MOUNT HOLLY — An experienced D.C.-based attorney has joined the township’s team to help argue the Mount Holly Gardens case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Township Council on Monday approved a resolution to name Carter G. Phillips of Sidley Austin LLP in Washington as lead counsel. Phillips will be paid up to $150,000, with the township and an insurance company each paying half.

Phillips has argued 76 cases in front of the high court on behalf of the firm or federal government, according to his firm’s website. James Maley, the township’s redevelopment counsel, said Wednesday that he will continue to serve as co-counsel but that Phillips will take the lead.

Maley will continue to be compensated at $145 per hour for his work. Township Solicitor George Saponaro and Maley met with Phillips in Washington on Wednesday to discuss the case.

A “merits” brief must be filed with the Supreme Court by Aug. 26. In June, the court decided to hear the case, which many in the legal community are keeping a close eye on because it could have a wide-ranging impact on the housing and lending industry and on municipalities that are attempting to redevelop blighted areas.

Mayor Richard Dow said Phillips is being retained because of his experience and because it made the best financial sense for the township. He would not comment further since it involves ongoing litigation. Phillips could not be reached for comment.

In its filing, the municipality has asked the court to determine if having a “disparate impact” on minorities is a violation of the federal Fair Housing Act and, if so, what criteria are used to determine it. The act prohibits the refusal to sell, rent or “otherwise make unavailable” a dwelling “to any person because of race, color, religion, sex, familial status or national origin.”

Lower courts found in favor of Mount Holly until the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in September 2011 that the redevelopment plan may have been discriminatory even if it wasn’t the township’s intent.

Saponaro said the case is not on the court’s schedule until December, and that township officials are still working with attorneys representing remaining residents to try to resolve issues outside of court.

The relationship between officials and residents has been strained since the township declared the 30-acre neighborhood off Levis Drive and the Route 541 Bypass in need of redevelopment because of crime, absentee landlords and blight in 2002.

A redevelopment plan was created in 2003 to buy and demolish the 329 rowhouses to make way for a complex of 228 apartments, 292 townhouses, and 54,000 square feet of commercial space. Fifty-six affordable units also are planned.

Some of the residents took the township to court, claiming they were being forced out of the neighborhood and would not be able to afford the new housing. They allege that the plan was discriminatory and violated their fair housing rights.

In May, some residents called on the township to settle the case. In a letter, they wrote: “For 13 years, we have lived in limbo. We have watched our neighborhood being dismantled and our neighbors give up the fight to keep their homes and move away due to what we believe was an unfair, unwise and discriminatory agenda to destroy a long-standing, diverse community in which we have raised our families.”

According to the letter, about 25 of the remaining 60 households are owner-occupied. Eight of them are requesting that the municipality purchase their homes for about $1.2 million. The others are asking to be relocated to the new housing.

Construction on the apartments is underway, with talks ongoing with a developer to build 60 of the townhouses. The township has received $1.5 million from the developer for the land where apartments will be built. Clearing of that portion of land is ongoing.

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